Road Warrior: Rules and etiquette on driving with high beams

The in basket: Michael McMahon asks: “Are drivers required to lower their high beams if another car coming in the opposite direction approaches?”

And Phil Housel sends in three complaints about bright lights that blind him to some degree when he’s driving. I’ll get to the others on another day but one of them relates to Michael’s question.

“Headlights are not only brighter these days,” Phil said, “but the aim seems to be less following the law, even on new cars.

"I'm no lawyer but I do my best to read the law,” he wrote. “From the RCW 46.37.220: 'and on a straight level road under any conditions of loading none of the high intensity portion of the beam shall be directed to strike the eyes of an approaching driver.'”

He wondered what law enforcement has to say about it.

The out basket: Complaints about blinding headlights have been one of those things about which I’ve never gotten much clarification from the police or state patrol, including how on earth they can apply the intricate law Phil cites when they’re on patrol.

Every time I’ve tried to address lighting complaints and why headlights can be so bright, it seems to boil down to decisions of federal agencies and their relationship to car makers in what can be manufactured and sold.

I didn’t do any better this time, but Deputy Scott Wilson of Kitsap County Sheriff’s Office did share my frustration with our state law, which he called “a bit convoluted.”

He sent along a list of lighting violations that can earn you a $136 ticket, including failure to dim one’s brights within 500 feet of a car coming at you and within 300 feet of a car you’re following.

You can read about the others in RCW 46.37.200 to .280.

To elaborate a little on the answer to Michael’s question, yes drivers are required to dim their lights when another car approaches, and when following another car, within the distances cited.

I was surprised to learn a year or so ago that this applies to the common practice of blinking one’s brights at an approaching car with its own lights on bright, hoping to get them dimmed; to alert an oncoming driver at night that his or her lights aren’t on; or to send some message to a driver you are following. All are potential infractions.

State Trooper Russ Winger, who clued me on to that fact, says quickly turning off your headlights for a second in those situations is not forbidden.

“If it is done quickly and safely it's probably preferable to flashing bright lights in a driver’s eyes,” he said. “Some people have greater sensitivity to that than others, possibly creating an unsafe situation, however temporary that may be.”

That’s not nearly as easy as flashing one’s brights, especially in new cars on which the headlights come on and go off with the ignition, keeping the car owner unfamiliar with his light switch, but them’s the rules.

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